The disclosure relates to systems and tooling for cooling components during additive manufacturing and, more specifically, cooling structures within a build chamber.
The pace of change and improvement in the realms of power generation, aviation, and other fields has accompanied extensive research for manufacturing components used in these fields. Conventional manufacture of metallic components generally includes milling or cutting away regions from a slab of metal before treating and modifying the cut metal to yield a part, which may have been simulated using computer models and computer aided design. Manufactured components which may be formed from metal include airfoil components for installation in a turbomachine such as an aircraft engine or power generation system, as well as mechanical components for other manufacturing, transportation, and structural systems.
The development of additive manufacturing, also known in the art as “3D printing,” can reduce manufacturing costs by allowing such components to be formed more quickly, with unit-to-unit variations as appropriate. Among other advantages, additive manufacture can directly apply computer-generated models to a manufacturing process while relying on less expensive equipment and/or raw materials.
One form of additive manufacturing allows a component to be formed from a reserve of fine metal powder positioned on a build plate, which is processed by an electron beam or laser (using fusing heat treatments such as sintering or melting) to form a component or sub-component. Additive manufacturing equipment can also form components by using three-dimensional models generated with software included within and/or external to the manufacturing equipment. Some devices fabricated via additive manufacture can be formed initially as several distinct components at respective processing stages before being assembled in a subsequent process.
One challenge in building high-performance metal components may be controlling the heating and cooling of components during the additive manufacturing process. Heating and cooling of metal components or portions thereof may contribute to stress, warping, and changes in material characteristics (heat treatment). Build plates with built in cooling means below the build surface and system configurations for air cooling the component have been proposed.